Hunter Biden investigation: Where Archer appeared to support FBI allegation
Sarah Bedford
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Devon Archer, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, gave testimony to the House Oversight Committee on Monday that, according to a summary, appeared to be consistent with elements of a bribery allegation made against the president and his son, though short of a smoking gun.
Archer told congressional investigators that Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, hired Hunter Biden in 2014 for “the brand” he could offer as the son of the U.S. vice president.
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Burisma executives then put significant pressure on Hunter Biden to enlist the Obama administration in an effort to stop a Ukrainian criminal investigation of Mykola Zlochevsky, the head of Burisma.
Hunter Biden, in turn, placed regular calls to his father in the presence of Burisma executives in an effort to deepen at least the perception that he had influence over the then-vice president, Archer testified.
And Joe Biden, as vice president, ultimately succeeded in pressuring Ukrainian leaders to fire the prosecutor investigating Burisma.
Archer’s testimony was significant because he worked so closely with Hunter Biden in Ukraine, serving on Burisma’s board of directors alongside Hunter Biden and regularly corresponding with him about the work they were performing for the company.
His testimony also forced Democrats on Monday to acknowledge that Hunter Biden’s value to Burisma never extended beyond his family connection, a reality that, for months, Democrats have avoided admitting.
Democrats stressed the lack of evidence in Archer’s testimony that Archer had overheard any conversations in which Joe Biden dictated business deals, dismissing the previously-unreported amount of contact Joe Biden had privately had with his son’s business partners.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said Archer explained that Hunter Biden’s affiliation with Burisma deterred investigators from digging too deeply into its affairs.
“Burisma would have gone out of business if ‘the brand’ had not been attached to it,” Archer said, according to Comer’s office.
The timeline of events in Ukraine that Archer laid out fits with a bribery allegation that the FBI memorialized in what’s known as an FD-1023 document in 2020.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) published the document last month.
Archer testified that, in December 2015, Zlochevsky was urging Hunter Biden to secure the U.S. government’s support for firing Ukraine’s top prosecutor at the time, Viktor Shokin.
During one meeting, Hunter Biden, Zlochevsky, and another Burisma executive stepped away from the table where Archer was sitting to “call D.C.” Archer said he did not hear the substance of that conversation.
Joe Biden traveled to Ukraine that same month and met with high-level Ukrainian officials. He later admitted that, during the December 2015 visit, he demanded Shokin’s removal.
In the FD-1023 document, a confidential source said a Burisma executive had told him or her in late 2015 that the company was confident Hunter Biden would “protect us, through his father, from all kinds of problems.”
House Oversight Committee Republicans released only paraphrased snippets of Archer’s testimony, and the full transcript could offer more details that cast doubt on or corroborate the bribery allegation.
Comer did not mention any claims by Archer that Joe Biden profited financially from his son’s work with Burisma. And a Democratic congressional aide reportedly said Archer told investigators he was unaware of $5 million payments to Joe and Hunter Biden.
Still, none of Archer’s testimony appears to contradict what an informant told the FBI about the nature of the Biden family’s agreement with Zlochevsky.
That source said multiple Burisma executives cited Hunter Biden’s ability to leverage his father’s power as the reason why the Ukrainian energy company had offered him a board seat in the first place. Archer essentially told congressional investigators the same thing.
In 2016, Zlochevsky had also boasted about having paid $5 million each to Hunter and Joe Biden in an effort to end the criminal investigation he was facing in Ukraine. Zlochevsky had claimed to be in possession of 17 audio recordings, two of which involved Joe Biden, that buttressed his claim to have faced pressure to pay both the Biden men.
Years later, Zlochevsky assured the confidential source that Burisma had structured the payments in such a complicated and secretive way that investigators would not find them for a decade. Zlochevsky said he never sent a payment directly to “the Big Guy,” a term used by Hunter Biden associates that is believed to refer to Joe Biden.
Rob Walker, another Hunter Biden business partner, confirmed to FBI agents in 2020 that an email mentioning “the big guy” did indeed refer to Joe Biden.
And Archer, on Monday, confirmed that Hunter Biden referred to his father during business conversations as “my guy,” according to Comer’s office.
Democrats, including Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), downplayed the approximately 20 phone calls Archer said Hunter Biden placed to his father in the presence of business associates by noting that, according to Archer, few of the conversations involved much more than small talk.
However, the confidential source never made any claims that Joe Biden worked directly with Burisma executives. Instead, Zlochevsky alluded to only one specific conversation he may have had with Joe Biden, and he suggested that began before Hunter Biden joined the Burisma board.
Zlochevsky told the confidential source that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden had indicated that Burisma should hire Hunter Biden to join its board.
Archer was not mentioned in the bribery allegation document as having played any role in the arrangement Zlochevsky struck with the Bidens.
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Comer said Archer’s testimony went beyond Burisma, noting Joe Biden’s attendance at a 2014 meeting with a prominent Russian oligarch who has been spared from the Biden administration’s sanctions for Russian oligarchs,
Comer also noted Joe Biden’s intervention on behalf of the daughter of one of Hunter Biden’s Chinese business partners; Archer said that Joe Biden had written a letter of recommendation for the girl’s college admission.